Milwaukee students help clean up the city

MILWAUKEE -- With sunny skies and temperatures in the high 70s, Wednesday was the perfect day for some Milwaukee students to take a break from the classroom and do a little spring cleaning.

It was a hands-on lesson on how to keep Milwaukee neighborhoods beautiful. "We get to help clean up the community and make it a better place to play, and walk around, and run and help people," fifth-grader Kia Williams said.

"Every time we would come out here for recess, it would be all dirty and I would be wondering, like, is somebody going to clean this up or something? So we cleaned it up finally," fifth-grader Avion Campbell said.

The clean-up effort was organized by Keep Greater Milwaukee Beautiful, to teach kids the importance of getting involved in their community. "This is great to have the interaction, to get the kids to understand and to take ownership in their neighborhoods, and to realize that they can make a difference just by picking up the potato chip bags, the soda cans and the water bottles," Milwaukee Sanitation Services manager Wanda Booker said.

Mayor Tom Barrett and Alderwoman Milele Coggs also stopped by to help out. "The more people that we can have as part of this, the cleaner the city will be and it will make it a better place for all of us to live and that's the goal," Mayor Barrett said.

The spring cleaning effort isn't just going on Wednesday. City leaders are also asking for your help to volunteer to keep the Greater Milwaukee area clean. "That's what it's all about - getting your neighbors out, getting your friends out. Even if you don't live in a neighborhood and you want to clean somebody else's neighborhood. If you live in a condo or something, this is an opportunity for you to get out and do something great for your community," Joe Wilson with Keep Greater Milwaukee Beautiful said.

Keep Greater Milwaukee Beautiful is hosting this year's Great American Clean-Up, which is a nationwide community beautification program. CLICK HERE for more information.